Work in progress...

Today I have some images for you of one of my shop items in progress. Here's the finished item, a recycled lightbulb snowglobe:
First I prep the lightbulbs. I have no images of that yet, but it involves carefully smashing the glass and taking the bits of glass, frosting, and wires out of the bulb, then washing and drying it.

Then I sculpt the inside items out of polymer clay. You can see my clay bits in this fancy storage container. (I wrap them in PressNSeal and store them in a Ziplock bag).

Here you can see two prepped lightbulbs in the upper right corner, a large dowel I use as a rolling pin, and a set of exacto knives that come in real handy for this kind of work.



This snowglobe has a set of four, slightly marbled red and white hearts inside. I make the individual hearts and then "glue" them together with liquid Sculpey before baking them in the oven to cure them. I bake them on a plate (it's oven-safe). You can see the 5 hearts (one didn't make the cut) and another tiny sculpture (tiny lambs for another snowglobe) in this picture beside the bottle of liquid Sculpey.

In this next picture you can see the lambs in progress (that snowglobe met with an unfortunate accident and will be remade for the lambs and ready to post in a week or so).

Here's my work table with a number of other tools I use for this project. There are some kitchen skewers, a tube of glitter, and some little rubber bumpers I use as feet. The skewers are great for applying glue and pushing objects around the inside of the bulb. You can also see the tube of silicone sealant. Glue doesn't work very well underwater, so the sealant holds the sculpture in place and then seals the cork into the top.

At this point in the project I tried cramming the hearts into the lightbulb only to discover that they don't fit. The bottom heart was removed (saved for another project) and the remaining hearts placed into the lightbulb.

The pliers stay in the lightbulb for 3 days while the sealant cures. It takes another 3 days to cure the sealant on the cork stopper.


At the end of all that the bulb is filled with water, glitter, and the stopper is sealed into place. Tada! Check out the listing HERE.

And In Other News.....

I'm having an organizational crisis. It's true.

This Etsy thing may be the saviour in my life. The lighted path out of the dark. I need to get out of this job, and no matter how hard I look, the combination of "more money" and "less crappy" or "equal money" but "delightful" just doesn't exist. We have too many bills at home, so to quit my job would be pressure we just don't need.

I figure if I can just WILL this Etsy shop to work then I'll have it made. The one problem being that to make it work I have to DO the work. I need to get enough products up, fast, and I'm certainly struggling with that (enough that I've considered taking on another artist/crafter into my shop). I don't want to be responsible for the success of another person, but it WOULD definitely bump up my number of products. I also have to hit the marketing hard.

Because of this new shop I'm starting to lose my mind a little. I've got several more websites that I need to keep track of (including a Flickr account that you'll see here soon). I've got shipping and deadlines and other details. I've got my normal job to contend with.

Basically, I'm starting to forget things. What was I doing? Oh, right.....

I've tried to mail my watch out to be repaired 4 times now, but I keep forgetting to bring the warranty to photocopy. I've started writing the post on corn chowder probably a dozen times now but at some point I only uploaded 4 of the pictures.....where'd the others go? What WAS I thinking at the time? I'm trying to learn photography and photo editing but I can't remember to upload the photos....or where my camera is......or where I left the thing I'm taking pictures of....or where my brain went. I'm determined to get a phone with an organizer......except we forgot to pay the phone bill......

So, if you have any good organizational tips or ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Since I have NOTHING good for you today picture/recipe wise I'm leaving you with a brand new addition to the site. A BLOGROLL!!!! WOOT! To the right you'll find a whole list of brilliant, interesting and funny blogs. A number of these blogs are Etsy related. If you're nervous about me sending you elsewhere then you should check out Cakewrecks first.....You'll thank me later.